Fractured Union: Politics, Sovereignty and the Fight to Save the UK
Mickael Kenny, Hurst, £20

WITHOUT borders there can be no state. Within that space government and people are supposed to be united around common institutions, interests and identities, but it’s often a messy business. 

This is particularly true of the so-called ”United Kingdom,” that contains within its territory four historic nations. For centuries, despite many tensions, injustices and rebellions, the Union of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland held together under the control of London-based kings, politicians and state officials. Ultimate power — sovereignty — was centred on Westminster. 

Now that model of governing, like so much else in the UK, is cracking. 

Michael Kenny’s book on the fractured politics of devolution and nationalism in the UK therefore comes at a good time. Like all of us he is coming at this from a certain perspective. He is an academic at Cambridge, a key part of the system that reproduces the ruling class. He completely identifies with the existing political and administrative class, hovering on its periphery as supposedly independent academic “expert” at seminars, think tanks, conferences and so on. But his independence is strictly limited. For as the title of this book makes clear, the fight is on ”to save the UK.”

Kenny is therefore an active bystander, as well as an observer. 

As a result, his perspective is top-down. Indeed, most of the fresh evidence he produces in the book is based on interviews with member of the political elite, top state officials and their ilk. All but a handful agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, which says something about the stifling culture of conformity at the heart of the British Establishment. 

There are no startling or secret revelations. In fact, reading their opinions and voices just reinforces the image of a second-rate elite obsessed with a sad little Westminster bubble. However, we do get a pretty clear picture of where they are at when it comes to devolution, Brexit and the threat of rising nationalism to the UK. 

The key takeaways reinforce the idea that the political integrity of late-capitalist Britain is on the rocks. Kenny’s sources reveal a total bewilderment about why things are fracturing and what they should do about it. Brexit is a particular problem and, in the case of Northern Ireland, could well be existential. Yet they have only a hazy understanding of history and no coherent strategy. 

Instead, it’s easier to attempt short-term fixes that either don’t work or make things worse. Even easier, they hope it will all just go away and they can get on with their important Westminster careers. Establishment opinion from Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer has therefore swung against making any more substantial concessions to national or regional feelings. That means, moving forward, there will be no more independence referendums and a hard-edged unionism.

The problem with all this is that it ignores the people. 

True, the masses sometimes appear as voters, the subject of an opinion poll or members of the odd focus group, but only in passing. As a result, we come away from this book none the wiser about how regionalist and nationalist ideas are playing out among the population. 

That is no accident. The political elite — and the author — continue to see popular movements as a temporary phenomenon, to be managed by tweaking this or that policy, institution or message. The real action has and will always take place in and around Westminster.

They are wrong on all counts. A system built in the age of conquest, kings and empire, doesn’t speak with, or for, the people, and the fault lines in the Union are revealed by the mounting social and economic crisis of neoliberalism.

Working people right across the UK are looking for solutions and inevitably some have turned to nationalism and regionalism. However, given the experience of devolved governments, it is hard to believe that any new changes to the Unionist constitutional state will provide the answers. 

Yet the fracturing of the Union has a logic and energy of its own and will continue. The dangers of ethnic, regional and nationalist divisions are real. 

Kenny’s book is therefore a useful reminder that socialists now need to actively engage with the issues or be overtaken by events. This will require some fresh, realistic and self-critical thinking. The fight to save the UK may be a lost cause, but the struggle for popular solidarity in the UK and the wider world is definitely still on.